


Color Harmony

by dgalerab



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Mood Indicating Marks, Multi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23156014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dgalerab/pseuds/dgalerab
Summary: Lucas has two soulmate marks.Max and Mike each have one.(AKA Mike shoots himself in the foot for a decade or so.)
Relationships: Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 16
Kudos: 45





	Color Harmony

**Author's Note:**

> i will fill this tag if its the last thing i do

When Mike Wheeler is 7 years old, he decides that he wants Lucas Sinclair to be his soulmate. It’s  _ not _ a crush, he tells Nancy when she teases him, it’s just  _ common sense. _ Lucas lives the closest of all his friends, after all, and he’d also joined Mike in a lightsaber fight (and had gotten him flat on his back with the saber pressed under his chin in two minutes) while Will sat back and drew a picture of the Millenium Falcon.

Which is to say, Mike wouldn’t mind Will being his soulmate either. But he wants it to be Lucas.

**

When Lucas Sinclair is 8 years old, Mike finally hounds him into showing each other their soulmarks. 

They do it in absolute secrecy, or at least their best approximation of it, with blankets draped over the top bunk of Mike’s bed to form a small cave with all four of them huddled up inside on the bottom bunk.

“On three,” Mike says, and they all nod.

Lucas starts counting, and Mike, frustrated, hurries to catch up and count with him. 

On three they all tug off their shirts at once. Will gets a little tangled up in his and elbows Dustin in the side, whispering apologies which Dustin tries to quell. Dustin’s new to their party, and Will is slow to get comfortable around new people. Lucas and Mike have been trying to keep an eye on him, but Mike’s always been better at it, because he’s as good as being quiet and gentle as he is at being a loud pain in the ass sometimes, but Lucas wants to be comforting too.

He reaches for Will’s shirt to help him tug the tangled mess.

Mike, in the meantime, blurts, “What the  _ hell,  _ Lucas?”

“What?” Lucas asks.

“Why didn’t you tell us you have two?” Mike says, sounding upset.

“Well, I’m  _ showing _ you, aren’t I?” Lucas snaps. He’s always felt a little self-conscious about it. All the other things that make him different are something he wears with pride and identity. He’s black  _ with _ his family. He’s a nerd  _ with _ his friends. Having two soulmarks lingering under his collarbone… that’s just  _ weird. _

He doesn’t know anyone with two soulmarks. Every time they learn about soulmarks in school or on TV or at home it’s always  _ one _ person you’re meant to be with. Just one. His parents had taken him to the doctor to check if it was alright, and the doctor had simply said it “didn’t warrant removal.” And  _ then _ his parents had told him it was fine, he was just a little special, but the damage was done.

Mr. Clarke had been the first person to say otherwise, when he’d talked about some of the things they knew about how soulmarks worked, how they changed colors and some theories about how they might work. He’d talked about a bond, nothing specific about The One, and afterwards Lucas had quietly asked him if he knew how maybe someone could have two soulmarks. And Mr. Clarke had simply smiled knowingly and said, “Well, we know very little about soulmarks, but it’s more common than people might think to have little variations like that.”

And now Mike seems to be  _ mad _ at him for having two. “If you have two, then it can’t be any of us!” Mike snaps back.

“Who said I  _ wanted _ it to be any of you!” Lucas shouts, though he did, maybe, a little. Not like a crush or anything, but Mike’s his best friend and it would be nice, he thinks, if the whole soulmate thing felt kind of like sneaking his walkie out so he can talk to Mike for another hour or two after bedtime. “And besides, why does me having two mean it can’t be?”

“Because they have to match,” Mike says, matter-of-fact. “And all of us only have one!”

“How do you know that?” Lucas asks.

“Because, how else would it work?” Mike asks, sighing. “You just have two different families and you split your time between them?”

Lucas hadn’t really thought that far ahead. “I mean, maybe? It’s not like they’d have to live separately.”

“Yeah, but they’ve got to be each other’s soulmates, otherwise it’s just weird,” Mike declares.

“Oh,” Lucas says. Usually he’d push back, but this is the one thing he doesn’t really feel confident about.

Ironically, one of his marks and Mike’s  _ do _ match, a pale green that Lucas thinks means fear. Or maybe acceptance? They don’t do quizzes on this sort of thing until middle school and freshman year when they have health class. The other is a dull yellow, which is… probably something happy?

“Ooh, yours is a cool shade of blue,” Dustin says, pointing to Will’s. “What’s that, like… uh… is that sadness?”

“No, I think it’s distraction,” Will says. “Maybe they’re doing homework or something?”

Lucas quietly tugs his shirt back on and lets them talk about it, and Mike goes quiet.

A few days later, Mike finds him in the hallway with tickets to Alien. “My mom talked to your mom, and she said my mom can take us,” he says. “So... I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings with how I reacted to your soulmark. Marks.”

Lucas warily takes the tickets. “You didn’t hurt my feelings.”

“No, you’ve been quieter since,” Mike says. “And I’m sorry. I just kind of figured we were showing each other our soulmarks in case some of them matched up, and I was surprised. I think it’s cool, actually! You’re gonna have two people just for you!”

“And each other,” Lucas says.

“Well, yeah,” Mike says. “But still. It’s cool. It’s like a Party of your own, but more special.”

Lucas smiles softly, liking that way of looking at it. He waves the tickets. “So, you gonna be a wuss and sleep over at my house after this?”

“Shut up, that only happened after we read Lord of the Rings,” Mike gripes, and it’s all back to normal.

**

When Mike is 12, he decides Eleven is his soulmate. He knows because her soulmark glows an optimistic yellow when they first meet her, poking out from behind the collar of her soaked, oversized shirt, and which makes sense, because Mike is  _ sure _ they’re going to find Will after this. It  _ can’t  _ be a coincidence, finding a mysterious girl in the woods where Will disappeared.

And Mike’s mark, when he’d peeked at it after leaving her in the basement in the quickly built fort he’d made her, is a burnt orange for apprehension, which  _ also _ makes sense, because she’d seemed really apprehensive. There are people after her and she seemed scared.

He tries to make her feel comfortable with food and blankets and smiles, but whenever he sneaks looks at his mark it’s full of patchy reds and oranges for apprehension and anger and some slivers of sickly green fear.

It’s probably because Lucas keeps calling her a weirdo, Mike decides, because Lucas is being a  _ jerk _ right now. They’re  _ all _ worried about Will, why does Lucas have to take it out on El?

And then, as quickly as El comes into their lives, she’s gone.

And Mike doesn’t know if she’s  _ gone _ gone. He doesn’t know anything.

He does some research about what happens when your soulmate dies. It’s apparently common for the marks to show weird colors and then go grey, and as a matter of fact, Mike’s mark is a mash of worry and joy and sadness and vigilance, a medley of swirling, confusing colors. He starts covering it up better in public, but he keeps glancing at it when he’s alone, waiting in terror for it to turn grey.

But it doesn’t. It turns a mild, contented orange.

And he doesn’t  _ get  _ it. If El’s out there, fine, why won’t she  _ answer? _ He’s not asking her to come back, or to do anything, or to say anything, really. He just wants her to  _ tell him _ she’s okay. Just a small sign. Anything.

He calls her every night. She never answers.

**

When Lucas is 13, both his soulmarks are a weird navy blue and dark burgundy. Sad and angry all the time. And Lucas has no idea who they could be or how to help them. 

Still, things are pretty good. The lab has been quiet, Will is back and on the mend, and after all the weird shit that went down the year prior, he’s pretty happy with where they are now.

And then Max shows up, jaw clenched and brows furrowed all the time, and Lucas really, really wants to know how many marks she has.

(“Definitely one,” Dustin says. “We’re meant to be, baby!” 

Lucas tugs down his shirt and raises a brow at his carefree yellow mark.

“I don’t know, maybe that’s just her face,” Dustin mutters, batting Lucas away.)

When they finally get Max to come trick-or-treating with them, Dustin blurts it right out, much to Lucas’s chagrin. “How many soulmarks do you have?” Dustin asks.

“Uh, one,” Max says, like it’s obvious.

“Ha!” Dustin says to Lucas. “Told you!”

“Doesn’t everyone?” Max asks.

“No,” Mike mutters, dragging along behind them at a distance, incredibly sullen.  _ “Lucas _ has two.”

Lucas glares at him. Sure, he’d intentionally left Mike out of the decision to bring Max along today, but Mike knows he’s sensitive about this. He doesn’t have to blurt it out in front of the girl Lucas likes.

“So if you were eyeing Lucas, I’m afraid it’s not meant to be,” Dustin says in a lofty tone.

“First of all, I wasn’t eyeing either of you,” Max says with a snort. “I don’t even know you guys.”

“Yeah, we know,” Mike mutters under his breath.

_ “Second of all,”  _ Max says, very pointedly not acknowledging him, “why does him having two mean it’s not meant to be?”

“Because you only have one and he has two,” Dustin says.

“So?” Max says.

“So, you’re  _ not _ soulmates,” Mike snaps from behind them.

“Says who?” Max asks, whirling around to look at him.

“Says  _ logic,” _ Mike says. “He has two soulmates. How does that work if they’re not soulmates too?”

“Oh, what, so only soulmates can share?” Max asks, hands on her hips.

Mike lets out a noise of frustration, but before he can answer, he stops short, looking around. “Where’s Will?”

Max doesn’t understand the panic. “I’m sure he just fell back or something. We can wait for him to catch up.”

Mike glares at her and takes off running.

**

When Max is 13, she’s pretty sure she finds her soulmate. 

She’s sitting on top of a bus, allegedly hunting monsters, and Lucas Sinclair tells her she’s more than the anger that’s been lapping at her heels since her mother dragged her into one family with fucking  _ Billy _ and then dragged her away from her dad and her home and into this new place with no friends and Billy’s constant, violent oversight.

She sees Lucas’s mark by accident, the weird patchy colors - a purple chord of guilt for having been so coarse with Lucas, green nerves over the possible monster she’s not sure she believes in, and a soft yellow for how she feels with Lucas turning his soft eyes on her and telling her he likes hanging out with her - and she knows, number of marks be damned.

She tries to catch a glimpse of the other one, almost convinces herself that she can see a tiny patch of skin right above Lucas’s shirt collar that’s a little greener than Lucas’s dark skin, but it’s probably just a trick of the light and curiosity messing with her. She doesn’t even know what kind of terror could be lurking behind such a dark green. 

And besides, things get a little too crazy to be wondering about Lucas’s other soulmate after that.

**

The next time Mike sees El, her soulmark is a pale, yellowish green, a quiet sort of acceptance and calm. If Mike were thinking straight, he might have questioned it right then. He feels anything but calm. Her soulmark probably should have looked more like his, a patchy green-yellow, mixed between fear and joy at seeing her again.

But it’s been a long, long day. He’s still reeling from Will screaming to be let go (except it wasn’t Will, which is worse somehow) and people dying and being trapped in a dark room, waiting for Bob to turn the power back on or die (and then they would die next, because there’s only one door between them and at least a dozen ravenous monsters and they can’t get out) and then standing outside watching Hopper drag Mrs. Byers screaming out of the building because it turns out Bob did die after all, and he’s just so relieved to see El after so long, and he doesn’t care what the hell her soulmark is saying about the feelings crackling inside of him like hundreds of little firecrackers under his skin.

As long as he has her back, it’s fine. Anything is fine.

**

When Max is 14, she talks El into breaking up with Mike.

She means well, she really does. No one’s looking out for El as a  _ girl. _ She’s got her gruff dad and Mike and his uppity bullshit, but no girl friends. And it’s not like Max expects them to be broken up for long. Mike’s definitely going to come right back with some pretty gift and they’ll make up, and in the meantime El will finally get some girl time.

And El is  _ positive _ she and Mike are soulmates, and her mark is showing a contented, optimistic orange, so it’s not like Mike is taking this  _ too _ hard.

It’s not until Mike finally blurts out he loves El in his panic that Max realizes two things with absolute certainty: one, she approached all of her advice wrong because as annoying as Mike is, he cares about El deeply and profoundly and El breaking up with him  _ might _ have freaked him out beyond just being cranky about it and two, Mike and El are  _ definitely _ not soulmates.

But she keeps that to herself, because what does it matter? They’ll figure it out eventually, and there’s just too much going on.

**

When Mike is 18, he realizes El isn’t his soulmate.

Or maybe he just accepts it. He’d probably realized around 14, when El had lost her dad and his mark had settled at mild sadness and worry instead of grief.

But now they’re at Hopper and Joyce’s wedding and El has a beautiful pink dress and long hair and Max has just taught her to spin around in order to make it flare into a circle and she’s so happy and Mike’s mark is a happy yellow, sure, but it just… hasn’t kept up.

And he can’t help but wonder how much longer it’ll be before  _ he _ can’t keep up, and how to tell El about it.

Max finds him sitting in a corner away from everyone and sits beside him. “Hey,” she says. “What’s up?”

Max might honestly be his best best friend at this point, though he doesn’t want to pick favorites and it feels kind of weird around her and Lucas now that Will and El live a bit further away and Dustin spends more time with Steve and Robin, leaving Mike to third-wheel. It feels a bit too normal to third-wheel. “El and I aren’t soulmates,” he informs her.

“Yeah, I know,” she says. “So?”

Mike shrugs. It’s just a fact. He obviously can’t deal with it today, so he just lets it sit there, just being a fact.

She takes his hand in hers and squeezes, and they sit there like that for a while.

**

When Lucas is 19, he and Max have plans to drive down to California to see her dad in the same week when Mike and El break up.

Before Lucas can decide whether or not to cancel to make sure Mike is okay, Max is inviting Mike along, which is a little weird, but Lucas has to say, he feels a lot better being able to keep an eye on Mike sleeping in the back seat as they drive rather than worrying what he’d be up to all alone over winter break.

They see all kinds of museums and Max gets Mike laughing at every one of them and Lucas uses some of the money he’d saved up for this trip to get Mike little trinkets that make him blush.

In California, they spend most of their time at the beach. Max gets Mike to swim with them, too, floating peacefully in the salt water while Lucas makes sure he doesn’t float off like driftwood. He doesn’t think that he’s ever seen Mike so quiet and calm.

But it’s also where he realizes that their marks always look exactly the same. With both of them in bathing suits half the time, the marks are visible all the time. He sees his own shock reflected in both when he realizes.

“Holy shit,” he says.

“What?” Max says.

“Holy shit!” he says again.

_ “What?” _ Mike groans.

“Nope, you guys aren’t allowed to know,” Lucas says, because he knows how they’ll both react. A smudge of red indignation streaks through both of his marks. They  _ hate _ being forbidden from knowledge.

“Tell us!” Max demands, her mark pink with glee. Just like Mike’s.  _ Exactly _ like Mike’s.

“Nah,” Lucas says. His marks get redder. “Maybe later.”

“Oh my  _ god, _ Lucas!” Max groans.

He grins and shakes his head.

Mike crosses his arm. “Lucas!”

“You’ll figure it out eventually!”

**

When Mike is 19, he spends a good hour glaring down Lucas while Lucas giggles at them about his secret.

“Unbelievable,” Max says, shaking her head. “Just tell us!”

“Look how smug he is!” Mike complains, pointing at her deep, flaming pink mark. “Have you ever seen a color like that before?”

Max freezes. Lucas beams at her. “Oh!” she says.

“What?!” Mike asks. She snorts loudly, shaking her head. “You too?!”

“Oh, it’s really obvious,” she says.

“Max!”

“Mike, look down,” Lucas says indulgently.

Mike looks at the street below his feet.

“Up,” Max says, condescendingly.

“What?” Mike snaps.

“Mike,” she says, laughing. “Jesus.” She points at his mark, slightly below his shoulder over his heart, and he stares at it dumbly for a moment before he realizes that oh.

Oh.

_ “Oh,” _ he says.

“I cannot believe how well you shot yourself in the foot,” Lucas says. “We could have noticed this when we were  _ eight,  _ but  _ no,  _ ‘they have to  _ match, _ Lucas.’”

“I…!” Mike protests. “It makes  _ sense!” _

Max is laughing so hard she has to sit down on the curb.

“Uh-huh,” Lucas says. “Yeah, makes so much sense. How could you possibly live with Max being my other soulmate?”

Mike glares at Max, who is currently wheezing through her giggles. “That’s actually a very good question,” Mike says dryly.

Max whines with laughter.

Lucas snorts and holds his hands out. “C’mere.”

Mike hesitates, wanting to take a moment longer to be cranky at them for making fun of him but wanting even more to partake in the soulmate he’d wanted ever since he’d understood what soulmates are.

He sighs and stoops into Lucas’s arms, letting Lucas pull him into a hug. “I’m glad it’s you,” he says, kissing Mike on the cheek.

“Me too,” Mike murmurs.

And then Max leaps onto Lucas’s back, which ruins the moment a little. (But just a little.)

**Author's Note:**

> as a person with a panic disorder and an intense fear of diseases, i am not having the best month here. please talk to me about these guys while i attempt to not spiral into madness


End file.
